Democrat Erskine Bowles said Tuesday it was a “shame” and “really frustrating” that President Barack Obama didn’t push the commission report on deficit reduction that he and Republican Alan Simpson co-authored.

“It’s been really frustrating, and I think it’s been a shame, because I think the people want to see the country come together, to pull together, rather than pull apart,”said Bowles on MSNBC’s Daily Rundown. “I think they [the American people] want to see something real, something of substance. I think they want to see something that makes sense.”

He added, “We propose $4 trillion in deficit reduction [in our report] because that’s the minimum amount you have to reduce the deficit over ten years in order to stabilize the debt and get it on a downward path.”

Obama “knows that and he knows it’s what we have to do for the country,” Bowles said.

The president had established the commission that Bowles and Simpson co-chaired, but did not publicly support their proposals when they were released late last year. The commission’s report then failed to reach a supermajority of 14 votes out of 18 and was not formally endorsed by the commission. In April of this year, Obama had kind words to say about the two co-chairmen, noting that they “shape [his] thinking on these issues,” but still did not get on board with their recommendations.

Bowles, a former White House Chief of Staff to Bill Clinton, and Simpson, a former Republican Senator from Wyoming, are expected to speak in front of the deficit supercommittee today to talk about the dire result that would occur if they failed to reach a deal.

Bowles also said that Senate leadership needed to step up and address “the most predicable crisis in history,” that of runaway entitlement spending.

“The fiscal path we are on is not sustainable. They know it and they’ve got to stand up to it. We’ve simply made promises we can’t deliver on,” said Bowles.